Cryptophobia
by romanticmannequin
Summary: Cryptophobia is the fear of secrets, either keeping, being told of, or in this case, having them revealed. Ok wow, posting something for the first time in over 2 years. This is the first of a lot of things i have ready to publish here. This is the beginning of a longer work, though i'm not sure exactly how long since i only have a couple chapters done so far. (T for Violence)
1. Fear

Logre squeezed Kogas face with one hand.

"Cute."

Koga smiled and playfully tapped his fist against the others jaw.

"Am not."

He leaned back against the wall and Logre followed, bending over with his arm propped above Kogas head.

"How would you like it if i grabbed you by the face and called you silly things?"

There was a defiant glint in his eye as he looked up at the taller man.

"Put your hands up here and see how many fingers they come back with."

He snapped his teeth at Koga and grinned at how terribly unimpressed he looked as he crossed his arms.

"You know how our biting matches always end up going."

"Yes, they tend to end quite nicely."

He uncrossed his arms and put his fingers under Logres chin.

"I've got a better idea of what to do with that mouth of yours."

Koga licked his lips and brought him closer with his fingertips.

"Don't you lick your lips at me, young man."

Logre put his hand on Kogas hip and drew closer still.

"Oh, would you rather i licked _your_ lips then?"

"I wouldn't be entirely against it."

Their faces were inches apart and they smiled at each other. They cherished these mornings, ones they were both awake enough to converse and had extra time to stand around in the hall and tease each other while they waited for the rest of their guild to prepare for the day. They usually made a point to be careful to make sure they weren't seen by the two of their three friends that didn't know about them being together.

"Are you gonna kiss me or not?"

Kogas eyes flickered between Logres eyes and mouth. Logre smiled wider and leaned closer, but when their lips were less that an inch away from each other there was a loud thump. They both turned toward the source just in time to see the door to their friends room close and hear harsh whispers of ' _You guys, that isn't nice!_ ' ' _Shut up, Veron!_ ' ' _Yeah, they probably saw us because of you!_ ' from right behind the door. They both stood up away from the wall and Logre walked up close to the door with Koga close behind him and knocked on it. It opened a crack and there was a quick flash of blue as Yami peeked her eye out before quickly trying to slam the door closed, but Logre had stuck his boot in the doorway. His eyes narrowed down at her and she froze. She stumbled backward apparently into Asaki when he pushed on the door and opened it, and looked down at both of them with the same angry look. He was nearly a foot and a half taller than both of them and could be intimidating to say the least, even to people close to his height.

"What the hell are you doing?" They glanced at each other but didn't say anything.

" _Well?_ " They tensed at his urging them to speak. Finally, Asaki spoke up.

"Yami didn't believe me."

"Did too!"

"You're just saying that because you lost the bet-"

"What bet?" Logre interrupted the two, taking half a step forward before Koga caught his arm as a sign to him to calm down.

"S-sort of..."

"What were you betting on?" Koga still held onto Logres arm, practically hiding behind him.

"On... Which one of you we thought... Was... Gay..." The two men stared at them, Koga in embarrassed disbelief and Logre entirely unamused. Again, Asaki was the one to break the silence.

"I thought it was Whirlwind, like, forever ago. And when we met prince Baldur i was seriously thinking you were gay for _him_ -"

"The prince is a child-!" Logre interrupted her indignantly but Yami began to talk over him nearly immediately.

"But i'm still legit convinced that Koga is a total twink,"

"I'm a what..?" He asked quietly while she continued to speak.

"And then last week Asaki saw you in the shower together and said you were fuc-" Asaki slapped her hand over the other girls mouth and hushed her as if it would do any good. Koga felt sick to his stomach as he gripped Logres arm tighter. As such a reserved person who highly valued his privacy, he couldn't stand the thought of someone seeing him in a moment like that.

"You watched us..?"

His face looked utterly horrified, as he was. The thought of how Logre took him like that, one hand fisted in his hair while the front of his soap-slicked body pressed and slid on the tiles, each long deliberate thrust forcing him up onto his toes and against the wall with Logres heavy breath in his ear, would normally be enough to turn his face quite a few shades darker. Now it only served to drain any remaining colour from Kogas cheeks and make him feel disgusted and ill.

"No, No! i left as soon as i saw you. i came over to see if you guys had an extra umbrella the day it was raining and i figured it was ok to come in since your door was unlocked..."

"When am i going to learn to lock the damn door..." Logre pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed.

"Well, actually the was locked the other time, that was my fault." Veron spoke up from where he'd been standing on the other side of the room.

"Aw, what? Seriously? Am i the only person here that hasn't seen you guys screwing?"

" **And its going to stay that way**." Logre told her loudly while Koga hid his face against the others shoulder.

"So are you two like, together, or..?" Logre felt Koga tense against his arm and suddenly turn toward the others.  
"And what if we are? Does that make me any less of a person just because i love someone!?" His unexpected outburst startled the rest of them and they stared, including Logre. Koga made a small noise of realization that he had just shouted at all of his friends, then frowned and looked at the floor as his brow furrowed.

"... We should get going..."His voice was very quiet and he kept his head down as he turned to leave. Logre grabbed his wrist.

"Hey-"

"I'm fine." He let the wrist slip out of his hand as Koga walked down the hall, pulling the strap of his bag to reposition it continuously out of nervous habit. Logre shot a threatening look at the two girls before turning and heading down the hall after Koga. He didn't look up when the taller man began to walk closely next to him and stayed quiet all the way to the skyship docks where Logre, unsure of how to go about comforting him out in the open like this, gently pat him on the back. He didn't give any kind of response and continued to stare at the ground with a solemn indifference.

"Koga, you..." Logre began right before he saw the rest of their guild walking toward them and the ship. Koga turned away and began preparing the ship to leave and Logres words died in his throat.


	2. Anger

That day they had to travel to the Forgotten Capital, the ruins of the stone city built beneath the roots of Yggdrasil. Koga stayed silent the entire way there, staring over the side furthest from everyone else. The others still talked among themselves about nothing in particular as Logre quietly navigated through the valleys and ravines of lands, and while the rest of the guild glanced toward Koga every so often, Logre nearly never looked away from him. He'd never seen Koga like this before and it worried him.

The somber halls and eerie air of abandonment in the Capital did nothing to help with the uneasy feeling that had settled over guild since that morning. Koga seemed to look up from the map even less than usual as they navigated around the ruins, Logres regular glances over at him that were normally full of adoration had turned into concerned gazes that one or two of the others usually joined in on. This went on for a time until they stepped into the territory that was marked by dozens of nests from dragonflies, a couple of which immediately made a swooping approach at the guild. Everyone readied to fight, Asaki making the first move by firing an arrow at one of the creatures but the projectile was unfortunately deflected by the whipping movements of the insectoid dragons tail. Yami swung upward at the same one and missed as it flew over to behind her but both monsters were aligned now well enough for Veron to lift his staff and hit both of them with a bolt of lightning that left them stunned. They struggled to stay airborne for a moment but it wasn't long before Logre cut one in half with his driveblade, killing it and slicing through the wing of the other in the same motion. The now crippled dragonfly failed to steady itself and took a flailing dive down one of the seemingly bottomless pits near the walkway, screeching as it fell.

After determining they were alone and safe once more, everyone lowered their weapons and had a moment to take stock and make sure there were no injuries. Everyone seemed fine and they continued on the rocky cliff path for a few more meters until Veron stopped and turned around to listen, the rest of the guild looking back at him and stopping as well. There was quiet as far as anyone else could hear, but the Vessels long pointed ears twitched and he took a step back, gripping his staff just before the injured dragonfly flew abruptly out from the hole it had fallen in. Its flying was unsteady but it darted past Veron and toward the others quickly enough. Asaki was the quickest but also the one standing closest to the edge of the drop off. She grabbed her bow but before she could ready an arrow the creature flew straight for her. She stepped back and felt her foot nearly slip off the ledge, realizing the only way she could step safely was about to be directly into the attack that was about to knock her off of the edge. As Asaki began to slip, Koga stepped in front of her and swung his mace hard enough to knock the monster out of the air and out cold. Veron and Yami ran over and each grabbed one of the archers hands to make sure she caught her balance and got safely away from the edge.  
Koga had taken another swing at the thing on the ground, ensuring this time it was dead, but then another to make it stop twitching as it expired. Then another. The three near the ledge were asking each other if they were alright, when they noticed Koga dealing even more blows to the dragonflys corpse with his weapon. Yami looked toward Logre, who was frozen in horrified confusion, watching Koga continue to take swing after swing at the now destroyed body.

"Koga... Its dead..." Yami said quietly, still staring. He took no notice and went on senselessly beating it.

"Koga?" Asaki tried to no avail. Vibrant blue blood now spattered Koga and the floor and walls around him, continuing to create more splotches with every vicious swing. Veron could only stare and shake, completely overtaken by the amount of negative feelings radiating from Koga. Count was lost of how many times he'd hit what was now a mess of blue gore or how long, but he didn't stop.

" _ **Koga.**_ " Logre said loudly, finally getting ahold of himself. The medic froze with his weapon above his head and there was silence, everyone watching as he slowly lowered it. Kogas arms hung limply at his sides, letting the mace slip from his hands with a punctuating clang against the stone floor that echoed grimly. Legs shaking, he sunk to his knees in an azure pool, just staring. Logre looked toward the others and nodded for them to go on and finish what they'd come here for. Still shaken they went, but glanced back as the left, worried and in disbelief. Koga was hunched over with his shoulders slumped and head hanging, looking blankly at his badly shaking stained hands. Approaching him slowly, Logre knelt down next to him and tried to see his face. Tears streamed from Kogas widened, unblinking eyes, his normally steady hands shaking even worse than the rest of his body, which visibly trembled. Blue splattered his entire front, still wet and dripping but luckily having managed to miss his face for the most part. Koga wanted to say something, anything, one of the questions he was screaming in his head, like _what just happened, whats wrong with me, when did i become such a monster, how could i have done this,_ _ **why**_ _?_ But in the end he could only make a quiet whimper of 'no.'

Logre carefully put his hand on Kogas back, who leaned toward him the slightest bit before practically collapsing against him. The knight held him until he stopped shaking and after a while helped him stand up and walked him back to the skyship. Though he knew that wearing his medics coat was something that brought Koga comfort in most situations, Logre let him take it, his vest and apron off to rid himself of most of the blood, which was a priority at the time. After gently wiping the medics skin clean, Logre sat down with him on the deck of the skyship.

"Thank you." Koga said in a near whisper.

"Its fine," He replied, knowing that things very much weren't.


End file.
